24 comments:

Well I don’t know if will improve the quality of education or not? One thing I am certain of is if Fermat had used this media instead of paper, he wouldn’t have complained about the space available to write in the margin and finished his proof . We are thus only left to wonder how much further we may have been ahead of the curve if this had been the case;-)

Best,

PhilP.S. Has there been any thought given to installing a few of these in the Black Hole Bistro to augment the blackboards? Of course they would have to have a few others to reflect the gender preference.

At least these ladies put their equations on their backboards. Seeing equations in warped spacetime is pretty cool, but it's not so cool seeing them on warped frontboards -- despite what the gentlemen in the audience may think...

Phil Warnell:” One thing I am certain of is if Fermat had used this media instead of paper, he wouldn’t have complained about the space available to write in the margin and finished his proof .”

Fermat was the physicist, mathematician and judge. His greatest achievement is written on the back of the second lady from the left. His Last Theorem (here he is a judge) is proof how humans are stupid.

Arun:” This helps promote education, how?

That is all point. Study physics is sex. If you are normal, you should enjoy doing it.

“Fermat was the physicist, mathematician and judge. His greatest achievement is written on the back of the second lady from the left. His Last Theorem (here he is a judge) is proof how humans are stupid.”

As the old saying goes ”misery likes company”; I therefore find it comforting to know that Fermat would have realized that we, he, and yourself would have by logical necessity formed to be included in this judgment:-)

I use to explain the content of the Least Principle in the Fermat version: suppose somebody sink and cry for the help. You are located somewhere on the beach at some distance from the water. What is the best way you choose in order to help? It's our nature to share the misery of others”.

The Principle of Least Action is THE Principal Physical Postulate (physical analog of the Fifth Postulate).

Regards, Dany.

P.S But he was also the outstanding mathematician and the judge. The court is the best place where you may study a human nature. My guess is that the Fermat's last theorem is a joke. It starts with n=2 solution. And it is “no go” theorem. Fermat knew that to prove “no go” theorem is virtually impossible. My guess that Fermat predicted that the attempts will be made and this will take hundreds of years. Now, suppose one find the solution after years of hard work. Bravo!!! So what???

“I use to explain the content of the Least Principle in the Fermat version: suppose somebody sink and cry for the help. You are located somewhere on the beach at some distance from the water.”

When you promote Fermat to me as someone to take note of, it’s like preaching to the converted. Least action is one of the principles I hold personally as one of the most central and for that matter many true theorists as well. The analogy you draw is not a new one and can be found over and over again in the literature. In fact a couple of years back I wrote a blog piece entitled “Time is of the Essence” where I used my own modified version of the analogy to make the point and a few others. Now as I’ve told Bee, I truly don’t consider my noodlings a blog, simply a place where I jot down a few thoughts, so don’t expect anything too earth scattering.

“My guess is that the Fermat's last theorem is a joke. It starts with n=2 solution. And it is “no go” theorem. Fermat knew that to prove “no go” theorem is virtually impossible. My guess that Fermat predicted that the attempts will be made and this will take hundreds of years. Now, suppose one find the solution after years of hard work. Bravo!!! So what???”

Fermat was noted for many things with a sense of humour being not one. What he was known for was not offering a lot of formal proofs for his work and also for not liking to publish his results. His many disputes with Descartes being perhaps part of the reason, yet from what I’ve read of him he was extremely secretive about his work and shared it with only a few. As you note a proof for his conjecture was discovered by Andrew Wiles in 1995 that required the most current of mathematical and strange logical concepts to allow for it. It’s pages and pages long and rests on several theorems in mathematics and logic. None the less in as Fermat was certainly a genius, it is interesting to speculate if he had actually found something much more straight forward and perhaps profound. One thing for certain action principle was certainly nearly a century ahead of its time and profound with Lagrangian mechanics by Joseph Louis Lagrange finally incorporating and demonstrating the power of this formalism.

Best,

Phil

P.S. I apologize Bee for drifting a bit off topics and my only defense is my interest was raised to a point I couldn’t resist.

“When you promote Fermat to me as someone to take note of, it’s like preaching to the converted.”

It was not my intention. I simply try to share with you the emotional shock that I experience meeting him. It is like if Nerdly in your story choose his way without any computer calculations, just based on his pure intuition. Perhaps it is not so accurate historically, but Fermat was the first, without knowledge of the results obtained by his predecessors. In addition, it gives me the confidence that the biology is described by laws of physics entirely. By the way, you didn’t mention W.R. Hamilton and the fact that SR was overlooked (before Maxwell) since it already build in the analytical mechanics.

“Fermat was noted for many things with a sense of humour being not one.”

That is impossible. For details, see for example, U.Eco, “IL NOME DELLA ROSA”.

“As you note a proof for his conjecture was discovered by Andrew Wiles in 1995”

I didn’t note that. Contrary to you I consider business of proving no go theorems or conjectures waste of time.

Backboard photo posted by Bee fascinated me long ago. In contrast with the rest, everything written on the back of the first lady from the left I consider only preliminary versions of the theory. If we drifted off topics, let stop here.

This photo is cropped from a 2003 original which shows 4 models, each with a different set of equations (general relativity, electromagnetism, classical mechanics, and quantum mechanics). There are both "sitting" and "standing" versions. The title is "Beyond the Standard Model: Nineteen things we understand and four we don't". The GR model gives more info, including links to merchandise featuring the "standing" image, inthis xckd-forum discussion.

Browsing the web when I should have been running more convergence tests of my new mesh-refinement code :), I ran across another example of this genre: a double helix tatoo. That blog entry also links to a "science tatoo emporium" with lots of other goodies...